ENTERTAINMENT

Dancer soars after life on Haiti's streets

A performer who started out as an orphan dancing for pennies in Haiti is one of four South Floridians vying on a TV dance competition.

LATIN MUSIC

Father-son reunion a musical triumph

Both were born in Cuba on Oct. 9 -- Bebo Valdés in 1918, and his son Chucho Valdés in 1941. Both are extraordinary, renowned jazz pianists who have played major roles in developing their island's rich musical traditions. Chucho learned to play from his father, starting at age 3 when he began to pick out the music Bebo -- a bandleader and arranger who was one of the architects of Cuba's golden age of music in the 1940s and '50s -- played at home.

THEATER

Review | Shifting show puts the senses in a spin

Fuerza Bruta may mean Brute Force. But the show that opened at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday night is more surreal wonderland than bruising attack, a fabulously disorienting trip to a watery world where life rushes at you from all sides.

CONCERT REVIEW

Chirino maintains hero status in Miami

Singer Willy Chirino celebrated 40 years in music at the American Airlines Arena Saturday night in a concert that was as much a salute to Miami's exile community (and, by virtue of its many guests, the Cuban music community outside the island) and its passions as it was to his own career.

'Fuerza Bruta': Making the most of surreal ideas and high-tech theatrics

Call it theater of the surreal -- made spectacularly and disorientingly real: Women romping overhead in a pool of water. A man on a treadmill, crashing through walls and rooms as if the world were rushing past him. People dancing in tiny rooms until their flying limbs shatter the walls.

BEHIND THE SCENES

'Fuerza' producers aiming for extended party

The Miami production of Fuerza Bruta will stretch the Arsht Center's production skills and the show's concept of enveloping audiences in a mind-bending environment. Instead of starting and ending the fun with Fuerza, the center hopes to further entice audiences with an art-filled entry and in-house nightclub.

THEATER

Review | The sparks are gone from new Celia Cruz show

Celia Cruz may live on in the hearts of fans and music lovers, forever beloved for her spirit, her voice, and as a symbol of the vitality and possibilities of Cuban exile.

Matisyahu's intensity sometimes left audience disconnected

Matisyahu kicked off his U.S. tour at Pompano Beach Amphitheater Saturday night venturing, not always compellingly, into new musical territory, mixed with the reggae-dub style rap that the devout Jewish artist has become known for. Matisyahu's intensity in performance, and the way he addresses profound themes were impressive; musically, he sometimes left something to be desired.

MUSIC

Matisyahu keeps the faith while rapping

Matisyahu, the devout Jewish rapper, is making the kind of journey he makes all the time between his music and his religion. On this recent Friday afternoon, that consists of walking through Manhattan from a voice lesson to prepare for Shabbat, the Jewish holy day of rest. For Matisyahu, this particular passage is simply another step in his dual spiritual and musical odyssey.

Miami Beach singer-songwriter Rachel Goodrich is set to soar

Rachel Goodrich wrote her first song when she was 12. Nothing was going right for her at Nautilus Middle School in Miami Beach, and the music just came out.

CONCERT

Concert review | Coldplay stokes Cruzan Amphitheatre

It's no small accomplishment to make a sea of 16,000 people feel like an intimate audience in a small club, but that's what Chris Martin and Coldplay did at West Palm Beach's Cruzan Amphitheatre on Friday night. Joking, charming and leading blissful singalongs, Martin and company made the opening night of their U.S. tour into a celebration of the feel-good power of pop music.

Coldplay brings hot tunes, free CDs to Cruzan concert

Despite being the adored, much analyzed and fantasized about lead singer of one of the planet's biggest rock bands, Chris Martin of Coldplay is practical, even humble about his role. Sitting on the floor of a rented house in Los Angeles, enjoying the California sunshine and the taste of the strawberry he's just finished, Martin is deliberately and charmingly low-key.

THEATER

Review | 'Cirque Dreams' doesn't go deep, but it's fun

You could call Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy the first psychedelic family circus. This visually and physically extravagant show, running at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday, is barely an inch deep, with no story to speak of. But in its opening night performance Tuesday, Cirque Dreams proved to be sumptuously inventive entertainment, a fantasy world of glittery acrobatic creatures with a disarmingly hokey exuberance.

DANCE

Review | 'Tango Undressed' is a sexy affair

Tango Undressed, Ray Sullivan's ambitious evening-length examination of the tango for his Miami Contemporary Dance Company, tackles the formidable and fascinating idea of uncovering the personal and emotional dramas underlying this supremely sexy and dramatic dance form.

CONCERT

Concert review: Kings of Leon reign supreme in Coral Gables

The Kings of Leon staked their claim to rock royalty at the BankUnited Center on Thursday night, with fire and thundering guitar and urgent soul.

Coldplay CD free for duration of 2009 U.S. tour

Coldplay lovers going to the British mega group's tour kickoff show on May 15th at West Palm Beach's Cruzan Amphitheater will take home an extra treat -- a free, live Coldplay CD. Called LeftRightLeftRightLeft, the 9-song CD will be handed out to everyone attending the group's 2009 U.S. tour. The recording includes several songs from the group's hit 2008 release Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, as well as songs from 2002's A Rush of Blood to the Head and 2005's X & Y. For those who...

ENTERTAINMENT

Katy Perry harnesses girl power in Fort Lauderdale show

If Katy Perry had really wanted to kiss a girl, she had plenty to choose from at Revolution Live on Wednesday night. Teen girls, preteen girls, moms of teen and pre-teen girls, pairs of girls who seemed to kiss each other on a regular basis -- about 80 percent of the more than 1,100 people packing the Fort Lauderdale club were female. And Perry was the bouncing, kittenish, sparkly, red-sequined princess (with sparkly microphone) reigning over a girl power night.

MUSIC

Finding her voice: Ximena Sariñana opens first U.S. tour

The title of Mexican songwriter Ximena Sariñana's first album, Mediocre, is exactly the thing she most fears. The name was a form of public-private therapy.

CONCERTS

Fleetwood Mac 'Unleashed' on tour

Fleetwood Mac, famed for its supremely catchy pop-rock songs (particularly in 1977's Rumours, one of the bestselling albums of all time) and tangled relationships, is hitting the road for the first time since 2003. The Fleetwood Mac Unleashed tour, which comes to the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise on Thursday, will feature the group's greatest hits. Earlier this spring, singer and songwriter Stevie Nicks, drummer and founder Mick Fleetwood, songwriter and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and (a mostly...